With no baseball, ’Topes to furlough most of staff
Isotopes Park has stood eerily silent this season and it’s likely to become even more desolate in July.
With coronavirus restrictions having shut down the 2020 baseball season, Albuquerque’s Triple-A affiliate will furlough most of its 29-member full-time staff effective July 1. General manager John Traub personally informed employees of the impending furloughs Thursday and Friday.
“It’s really sad and I feel awful about having to do this,” Traub said Saturday. “I feel terrible for our employees and their families. These are people you get close to and care about, they’re not just employees. It’s extremely frustrating but this is where our industry is right now. I wanted to give people as much notice as possible.”
Traub declined to say exactly how many employees will be affected but the furloughs are indefinite. He plans to maintain a “skeleton” staff for the time being but said furloughed employees could be called back in the event baseball opts for a shortened minor league season this summer.
That appears increasingly unlikely, however, as major league players and owners have yet to settle on any plans for their own 2020 season and may ultimately play games in empty stadiums. Minor league baseball’s revenue is based almost entirely on attendance and large gatherings are currently banned in New Mexico and many other states because of the pandemic.
“Nothing’s official but it obviously doesn’t look good,” Traub said. “Other businesses and sports are starting to open up and we’re not playing.”
Isotopes employees were informed in April that they would be paid through June, Traub said. They were also told furloughs would be likely if baseball did not resume in the interim. Now Traub is hoping things stabilize enough for him to bring furloughed employees back relatively soon.
“We all hope this is temporary,” he said, “but we can’t really define that right now. “With any luck there will be a vaccine and we’ll be able to have some sort of normal season in 2021. The whole world is going through this but when it hits home like this it really hurts.”